Analysts Set BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) PT at $28.67

Shares of BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nine brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $28.6667.

BCE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Securities lowered BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised BCE from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on BCE from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BCE. Canerector Inc. boosted its stake in BCE by 3,152.0% during the 3rd quarter. Canerector Inc. now owns 8,130,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $190,161,000 after purchasing an additional 7,880,000 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in BCE during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $100,999,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in BCE during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $91,811,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec boosted its stake in BCE by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 34,107,306 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $797,161,000 after purchasing an additional 3,024,110 shares during the period. Finally, Cullen Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in BCE by 77.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,389,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $149,459,000 after purchasing an additional 2,792,485 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at $25.08 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.71. BCE has a fifty-two week low of $21.58 and a fifty-two week high of $26.52. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $24.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.44. The firm has a market cap of $23.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.10 and a beta of 0.50.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.04. BCE had a return on equity of 13.87% and a net margin of 25.66%.The company had revenue of $4.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.69 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. BCE has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.790-1.910 EPS. Analysts predict that BCE will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.0%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.02%.

About BCE

BCE Inc (NYSE: BCE) is a Canadian communications, media and entertainment company that operates through its primary subsidiaries, including Bell Canada and Bell Media. As a large integrated telecommunications provider, BCE delivers a broad range of connectivity services and content to residential, business and wholesale customers across Canada. The company combines network infrastructure with media assets to offer bundled communications and entertainment solutions.

On the services side, BCE provides fixed-line and wireless voice services, mobile data, high-speed internet, fibre and broadband access, and television services through platforms such as Bell Fibe and Bell TV.